Saturday, May 30, 2009

After the hard work he had been doing, my dear husband decided to take a break and have a play day! (Yeah honey!) He took us to the beach. Whoo hoo!

Although it was quite misty and foggy, it was a wonderful day! That actually helped to keep things cool! The sun did peek out from time to time.

Normally the beach is crowded this time of year, but perhaps due to the weather, we had our area pretty much to ourselves.

We had fun playing games without worrying about disturbing other people.

It was fun! Brad loves to build sandcastles, he made a really big one today, this is part of it.

Here's Bri taking it all in. :) We also found some neat stuff. Phil spotted this sea turtle "nest" of eggs below. And I spotted, of all the weird things, deer hoof prints - it looked like a big one, and a baby, the big one is pictured below.

We had lots of laughs, relaxing and soaking up the sun (some of us got a little too much of that!) But, we had a great day!

Genesis 1:10And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Friday, May 29, 2009

My Dear Husband is on vacation this week...and is tackling some home projects. One of them was taking out our old bathroom vanity/sinks, and installing a new one. Above is the old one.Here are my two macho men removing the old one. :)

Now we have none!

As you can see...Chips is inspecting their work! He was a big help!

Viola!

This project presented it's challenges, but they are almost finished the job, just a few details left to go.

Their work reminded me of this verse:Colossians 3:23And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

This particular one has really been rattling around in my heart and head...I thought it was so good that I would share it with you.

I love the assignment at the end in large print.

Command 16: Do Not Cast Pearls Day 112

Treasure God’s Jewels!Sometimes a song will have such meaning to me that it brings tears to my eyes. One example is the hymn “When He Cometh.” The third verse says, “Little children, little children, who love their Redeemer, are the jewels, precious jewels, His loved and His own. Like the stars of the morning, His brightness adorning, they shall shine in their beauty, bright gems for His crown.”

The formation of a pearl and the raising of a child have many similarities in both the process and the result.When Jesus wanted to describe the kingdom of heaven, He selected a gem that represented ultimate perfection to the Hebrew mind. “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matthew 13:45–46).

Jesus also placed great value on children when He told His disciples, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). It is a great tragedy that many parents today look at children as burdens and not blessings. They do not realize the great potential of each child who is raised in the fear of the Lord.

I once heard a story about a tourist who purchased an inexpensive necklace in a Paris trinket shop. When he returned home, he decided to have it appraised and was shocked when the jeweler offered him $25,000 for it!

He decided to have another expert jeweler examine the necklace and was amazed to receive an offer of $35,000 for it! The astonished man asked the jeweler why such an ordinary necklace was so valuable. “Look through this glass,” replied the jeweler. There he saw a small inscription that read, “From Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine.” This necklace had belonged to Napoleon’s wife. The new owner did not recognize the value of the necklace until he saw it from the perspective of the jeweler.

We will not fully appreciate the value of children until we see them from God’s perspective as precious jewels.

The best thing you could add to your journal this week is a list with the names of each member of your family and reasons why they are of great value to you and to God. At first, you may not have much to write, but as you think about it more, ideas will come to your mind, and the more you will appreciate the great treasures that God has given you in your family. There will then be little thought of ever “casting them out”!

Through Christ our Lord,

Bill Gothard

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine …” (Matthew 7:6).

Monday, May 25, 2009

Ok, part 2 of our lovely day at Longwood will be the indoor pictures. We're picking up where we left off after we dashed in just in time to get out of the rain. (These conservatories are basically just big fancy glass greenhouses, and when it was deluging rain...they leak!)

You can't believe what all they have in these conservatories! Like this lovely fountain.

A whole garden of hibiscus. Look at the picture below to get an idea of the size! (sorry the quality isn't great)

How about an indoor rose garden?Or, maybe you would enjoy this garden of orchids? Venus Flytraps anyone?These are foxgloves growing among their indoor fruit trees. Nectarines were the favorite of Mr. Pierre du Pont (who owned this estate) and they said in it's heyday that he grew about 7,000 of these in one growing season in the late 50's. (If I remember correctly)These bonsai were gorgeous! Some of them dated back to the very early 1900's!Yes, they even have grapes growing. They even have grass growing inside!

You can even tour inside part of what were living quarters of the estate, which are connected to the conservatories. They used to dine in this room.An interesting fact about this place for me, is that when I was a Junior in High School, our class threw the Senior's their party here at Longwood! We had the whole place to ourselves, and we had our pictures taken in the conservatory! It was lovely!I hope you enjoyed our garden stroll!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

The answer is:Memorial Day started off as a somber day of remembrance, a day where we in America go to cemeteries and place flags or flowers on the graves of our war dead. It is a day where we remember our ancestors, our family members, our loved ones who have given the ultimate sacrifice.

But now, too many people "celebrate" the day without more than a casual thought to the purpose and meaning of the day. How do we honor the 1.8 million that gave their life for America since 1775? How do we thank them for their sacrifice? We have 364 other days to celebrate and enjoy the freedom and life that we have because of their sacrifice. As Mr. Schelp says, "it's only by actions that we can repay those who have come before us." Let us take just one day to remember.

We need to put the "memorial" back in Memorial Day and observe the day as it was originally intended. We need to decorate the graves of the fallen, visit their memorials, and support the care of these cemeteries and memorials so that their ultimate price, their ultimate loss is not taken for granted. To honor our military dead does not validate war, leave that debate behind for just this day. Consider giving your support to restoring the traditional day of observance of Memorial Day to the 30th of May. "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day." -- VFW web site [www.vfw.com/amesm/memorialday.shtml], Feb 2002

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Alright, alright...so I'm totally behind on posting pictures. I confess! My daughter has been quite patiently waiting for me to post about our fabulous girls' day out while Brad was away.

Longwood Gardens is a huge estate that is only about 35 minutes from our house. It has extensive grounds that you can walk, as well as many indoor conservatories. There are 1,050 acres with 20 indoor and 20 outdoor gardens. These first shots are of the grounds.

It was predicted to rain, so we did the grounds first, then went inside. (we were glad we did! We no sooner got inside and it poured rain--complete with thunder and lightening! (But, we didn't care--we took our time just looking at the indoor beauty.)

I have been there many times, but never get tired of it!

You can go at different times of year, and see completely different kinds of displays as different flowers bloom at certain times of the year. They even have a lovely Christmas one.

Isn't this Wisteria something? I like the purple-of course!See below how the trunk of the wisteria is twisted?This place is a photographer's dream!

These lilacs below are a favorite of mine!

They had some fountain show! It was getting dark though as it was about to rain. :)Below is a Celtic Knot Garden of herbs--we really loved that!Below is a vegetable garden that is beautified with flowers.Isn't this cute!?This topiary garden was really neat too.There was an Analemmatic Sundial there.I'll finish here with the outdoor photos, and come back with indoor ones in another post.Got Spring fever yet!? :)